The present political situation in Russia is marked by the
growth of the strike movement in general, as well as by an increase in the
number of political strikes (for example, May 1st strikes), and by the
growth of the Pravdist trend among the workers (the Insurance Board
elections in the two capitals, and the election of the All-Russia Insurance
Board provided additional proof, of this).

The connection between the nature of the working-class movement and the
trend which the overwhelming majority of class-conscious workers have
recognised as their own is obvious and requires no special
explanation.

Another feature of the present political situation is the fact that a
“Left bloc” is taking exceptionally clear and distinct shape, i.e., the
emergence of joint action by proletarian and bourgeois democrats (Trudoviks
and liquidators) against both the Purishkeviches and treacherous bourgeois
liberalism. The obstruction organised by the Left in the Duma, and the
suspension of the Social-Democrats and Trudoviks by the votes of the
Rights, the Octobrists and a section of the Progressists, with the Cadets
abstaining from voting, have clearly shown what this “Left bloc”
is. Proletarian democrats have not weakened their independence by a jot,
nor have they retreated from their proletarian, Pravdist line. The only
ones to support this line against the liberals have been the Trudoviks and
liquidators, although they both often waver and incline towards the
liberals.

Lastly, the present political situation is marked by vacillation and
discontent among the bourgeois classes. This was expressed in the speeches
and resolutions of the Commercial and Industrial Congress. They revealed
obvious discontent
with the government, and an obvious mood of opposition.

This also found expression in the anti-Cabinet motion adopted in the
Duma by the Octobrists—the Zemstvo people and the liberals—during the
debate on the estimates of the Ministry of the Interior. Jubilant at the
Octobrists having adopted “their” point of view, the Cadets forget to add
that they themselves had adopted the Octobrist point of view!

The resolution adopted by the Fourth Duma expresses a quite definite
counter-revolutionary and imperialist point of view. In this resolution the
government’s policy is condemned because

“administrative tyranny all over the country is causing
discontent and unrest among large, tranquil [i. e., bourgeois reactionary
and landlord] sections of the population, and is thereby stimulating the
rise and growth of anti-government tendencies”.

The Octobrists are referring to democracy. The Cadets have again and
again publicly renounced democracy. So much the better, for they never have
been, and never can be, democrats; they merely deceived democracy when they
undertook to represent it. Democracy in Russia cannot take a single step
forward unless it sees through the bourgeois liberal frauds perpetrated by
the Cadets.

Continued growth of the working-class movement. Greater unity between
the majority of the workers and Pravdism.

Definite emergence of a “Left bloc”, expressed in joint action by
proletarian and bourgeois democrats (Trudoviks and liquidators) against the
Rights and against the Cadets.

Disintegration, vacillation, mutual distrust and discontent within the
Third of June system, among the land lords and reactionary
bourgeoisie. “They” accuse one another—the Purishkeviches accuse the
liberals, and the liberals the Purishkeviches—of encouraging and
accelerating the new revolution.